Fall Fun: Part 2

On Monday of this past week, our family took a trip to Hunsader Farms in Bradenton, FL.  I had wanted to take the kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins and had heard of Hunsader from some friends.  So we decided to make the trip there.  They have fresh produce you can purchase as well as a play ground and petting zoo in addition to the pumpkin patch.

We took the kids by the petting zoo first and this was the first sight we caught.  We told JennaBeth the bunny was taking a nap and she started hollering, "Sleep, sleep" and almost woke him up!

We got to see the caretakers feeding the baby goats with a bottle.  They had just been born the Thursday before we came.  This little one kept trying to climb the steps you see in the picture and falling back down.

I'm assuming these were the mommas and papa's.

I kept telling JennaBeth to look at the babies and she would say, "baby goats" over and over.

Mr. or Mrs Peacock (not sure it this was a male or female) never would fan their feathers for us.

Mr. Llama just sat like a knot on a log!  Cecily reminded me not to bother him to much or he would spit at us!

I think the donkey was sleeping while standing!

Bentley wasn't all that interested in seeing the animals.  He was just ready to get on the playground!  JennaBeth followed him and played just like she was as big as he was.  She went up and down the slides without a second thought.

Cecily, Mike and I went over to the picnic area to wait on them to finish playing and we found this little caterpillar.  I let him crawl on my arm and Cecily got grossed out.  She's such a girl :)  I never could convince her to let him crawl on her!  JennaBeth wasn't scared and wanted to hold him, but I was afraid she would smush him.

When we could finally pull Bentley off the playground, this hay bale tractor caught his eye and he thought it was really cool.

As you can tell by his red little face, it was super hot!

JennaBeth wasn't too cooperative with picture taking on this particular day.  She did stop in front of the tractor, because she saw her brother do it.  She wants to do everything he does.

Our next stop was the pumpkin patch.  Bentley was dumb founded at all the pumpkins.  It took he and Cecily forever to pick just the right ones they wanted.

And of course little miss wasn't going to be left out of anything.  She found the bin with all the mini pumpkins in it and went to hunting her very own pumpkin.  She finally chose one and started calling it a ball the throwing it.  Thank goodness we finally made it to the car without her pumpkin "ball" getting destroyed!

On our way out, Bentley caught sight of some more tractors.  The sunflowers were pretty.

I won't even bother telling you how long it took Mike and I to get this picture!  JennaBeth kept throwing her little pumpkin.  She was convinced it was a ball.  You can always count on Bentley to grin real big!!

We had to say bye to the Hay Family on the way out!

We were so close to Sarasota and Yoder's we just couldn't resist stopping in for an early supper.  The Amish really know how to prepare delicious food.  We only got two pieces of pie to share for dessert.  They give you a piece as big as your head.  Bentley and Mike shared a piece of fresh strawberry pie and Cecily and I shared the best coconut creme pie I have ever put in my mouth!  JennaBeth had some of all of everything!! 

When we got home, Cecily and Bentley, with JennaBeth trying to help, carved the biggest pumpkin.

Isn't Mr. Billy Bob McIlwain handsome, even with his chipped tooth :)

Before we left Hunsader Farms, we purchased some apples.  They gave you a plastic bag and you could fill it up with whatever kinds of apples you wanted for just $6.  So now we have tons of apples.

Anyone have any good recipes using apples?  Please share.  I've got to do something with all these apples.  They make the house smell just like an apple orchard.

My favorite part of the day I believe was getting to come home with some yummy homemade apple butter.  There is nothing like a hot biscuit smothered with apple butter!!

We had alot of fun on Monday at the farm.  And those three pumpkins sure are cute sitting on the bar in our kitchen!

Blessings,

Fall Fun: Part One

Since I have taken a gazillion pictures over the past few days, I have decided to break our "fall fun" post up into two parts.  I know your eyes will appreciate that; and I'll still give the warning that if you don't enjoy lots of pictures of super cute kids, then you might want to pass this post up :)

Our church hosts an annual Fall Festival in the parking lot of our facilities.  We offer the community everything for free; bounce houses, lots of games and candy and a free hotdog, chips and drink.  We had around 450 people come through this year.  We have been at Northside for a little over three years now and I love being a part of this event.  It is really a joy to see how everyone in our church family works together to make this festival a huge success.

We were particularly blessed this year in that  local business owners donated the much of the candy and the hotdogs for the event.  Thank you Smoke-N-Pit and Walgreens!!  We even had several Walgreen managers and employees come help with the festival activities.

Is that not the cutest little cheerleader you have ever seen?  Now for any folks back home visiting the blog, let me clarify something:  She's wearing a gator uniform ONLY because they don't sell any maroon and white down here in SW Florida!!  However, we do like the gators, but are Bulldog fans first!

JennaBeth was trying to do the cheerleader squat.

And that is Bentley the pirate and his little friend Seth, the race car driver.

JennaBeth wasn't gonna let anything stop her from playing the games just like all the other kids.  Here she is finding candy in the haystack.

And she also took her turn at the horseshoes.

From the expression on her face here, I think she may have been saying, "Okay Mom!  Can I just eat my hotdog without the camera in my face?"

Bentley is quite the photogenic one.  You point a camera at him and he just lights up!  Cutest little pirate I've ever seen...Rrrrrrrrrr!

JennaBeth was a pro at the ring toss!

Little Miss gator loves her big sister, who was SuperMan's wife.

Bentley had been talking about the Fall "festibul" for weeks and was so excited to get to play all the games.

That was an actual real bowling ball and I think it took all the little pirate had in him to pick it up!  He knocked all the pins down but one so he was proud of himself.

Of course the best part was getting loads of candy!!!

The bean bag toss was fun for him too!  The lady in the picture helping him (with the cowboy hat on) is Ms Debbie.  She and her husband A.C. teach Bentley's Sunday School class and they are wonderful at what they do with those kids!  Benltey loves the Johnsons and they have taught him sooooo much!

After a little while I finally convinced the little peeps to take a break and rest for a while.  Because I failed to mention that it felt like it was a thousand degrees HOT and I was already pooped out.  We stopped on the steps leading to our sanctuary where Mike and our Senior Pastor Hal and a few others were doing the music.

JennaBeth wasn't the only little gator cheerleader there!  That's her with her little friend Jaylin.

The fireman in the picture above is Nicholas.  His little baby brother was dressed as a dalmation, but I failed to get a shot of him!  As you can see JennaBeth was going to town on one of the MANY lollipops she had over the course of the evening.  Guess I'll be making her dentist appointment very soon!

Don't think for one minute that little miss wasn't going to tackle the bounce house!  She would jump up and fall back down on her little bum and would holler "Wow" and do it again and again.

I tried to get a shot of some of the crowd mingling around the parking lot while JennaBeth was jumping.

JennaBeth kept jumping and every time she jumped, Jaylin would just laugh the biggest laugh!  They had lots of fun.

I had to get a shot of the sweet piggy tails!

For the last hour or so, Bentley was joined in all the running around by his little "girlfriend" Rebecca (Wabecca to him!).  Bentley is quite smitten with "Wabecca" I have to say.  They spent lots of time in the obstacle course bounce.

Here they are taking a little break.  Bentley was a gentleman around her.  He was being really sweet.  They would finish with a game and he'd ask her, "What would you like to do now?"  Heaven help me when he's old enough to really be serious about the girls!!!

Cecily...AKA...SuperMan's Wife...worked the entire evening helping with the games.  She loves doing that sort of thing though.  She said there was one little boy dressed as Superman who was maybe two years old who came to her game and when he saw her he ran up to her and wanted to hug her!!!

Bentley waited patiently in line with Rebecca for the games and that sweet little pirate always let her go first!

JennaBeth patiently waited in between games while big brother played.

Little Miss Gator had to get her picture taken with Mr. David Moody who is probably the biggest gator fan in our church!  JennaBeth loves Mr. David.  From just a newborn on up she instantly bonded with him and just loves him!

Seth was so cute!  When they were making the announcement that the festival was coming to an end he made the announcement that the "church would be open again on Sunday, so everybody come see us again then!"

This is the only picture I got the whole evening of my Little Miss Gator, Pirate and Superman's Wife.  Yes, JennaBeth still had a lollipop in her mouth!  They were three tired kiddos at the end of the night, but they had fun and that's what counts!

Now, aren't you glad this is divided into two parts:)  Come back tomorrow for the recap of our trip to Hunsader Farms and the pumpkin patch!

Praying you have a blessed weekend with your families,